What if the anxiety, exhaustion, brain fog, or feeling that you just can’t keep pushing anymore isn’t only about what’s happening in your mind?
In this episode of Rewiring Health, I’m joined by Dr. Oscar Coetzee for a fascinating conversation about the often-overlooked connection between nutrition, gut health, stress, inflammation, blood sugar, and mental well-being.
Dr. Oscar brings more than 25 years of experience in psychology and nutrition and currently serves as VP of Clinical Education and Practitioner Support at Designs for Health. His extensive academic background includes faculty positions at Georgetown Medical School, Notre Dame University, and the University of Bridgeport, along with advanced degrees in psychology, human nutrition, holistic nutrition, and clinical nutrition.
Together, we explore why symptoms like anxiety, fatigue, overwhelm, difficulty losing weight, and feeling “off” may require us to look beyond the symptom itself and ask a different question: What is the body trying to tell us?
In this conversation, we dive into:
- The overlooked physiological side of mental health
- How blood sugar fluctuations can influence how you feel
- The relationship between nutrient status, the gut, and the brain
- Why chronic stress isn’t simply something you can “get rid of”
- How overstimulation and perfectionism affect the body
- Why gut health and the microbiome matter far beyond digestion
- Functional testing and what it may reveal that conventional testing doesn’t
- Inflammation and the body’s remarkable ability to compensate
- GLP-1s, weight-loss resistance, and the microbiome
- Why Dr. Oscar believes we need to rethink our obsession with calories and restrictive diets
This conversation is an invitation to stop looking at the body as something that is failing you and begin getting curious about what it may be communicating and what it needs in order to function more optimally.
If you’ve been doing the mindset work but still feel anxious, depleted, overwhelmed, or disconnected from your body, this episode may give you an entirely different lens through which to understand what’s happening.
Connect with Dr. Oscar Coetzee:
https://www.designsforhealth.com/
https://www.instagram.com/designsforhealth/https://x.com/designs4healt
https://www.facebook.com/DesignsForHealth/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjSatJ4tkSj1ni5bBFteaJg
https://www.tiktok.com/@designsforhealth
https://www.linkedin.com/company/designs-for-health/
Connect with Kelly
If you’re tired of second-guessing yourself, carrying everyone else’s emotions, or feeling guilty every time you make a choice that honors you, I offer several ways to support you in coming back to yourself.
Self-Abandonment AuditA free resource to help you recognize where you may be overriding your own needs, emotions, boundaries, or inner knowing and begin identifying the patterns keeping you stuck.
Self-Loyalty MentorshipA private 12-week mentorship for women who are ready to stop abandoning themselves to keep the peace and build the capacity to stay grounded in their decisions, boundaries, and truth.
Self-Respect ResetA self-paced program designed to help you create greater inner safety, strengthen boundaries, and rebuild trust with yourself.
You can learn more about Kelly’s work and explore ways to work together at https://drkellykessler.com
